Basic concepts of perception and communication

1. Message 5Basic concepts of learning and competence
Learning is an active process of appropriation (making my own) of
knowledge, abilities and skills in order to enhance the personal or
collective control potential (>> competence) of shaping reality in a
given context or situation.
Competence means being able to decide, act and learn adequately
with respect to the functional and situative context.
These two definitions make transparent that we are not talking
about education nor teaching in whatever context. Learning in an
organisational or cross-organisational context always means to im-
prove the capacity of individuals and organisations to overcome spe-
cific situations, achieve previously defined objectives or simply to do
more competently what they are expected to do. The result of such
learning is not in the first place knowledge but competence, the
capacity of taking adequate decisions, of planning and executing
corresponding activities and checking (self-) critically what and how
it has been achieved in order to do it better the next time.
The learning cycle, thus, is basically identical with Deming’s quality
improvement cycle where you plan something, execute it, check its
correctness (or viability, as we would say) and improve, if necessary.
A more complete learning cycle is Hacker’s model of accomplished
action which is widely used in German vocational training. It is a
fully action-oriented learning model.
We combine it with a prac-
tical theory of learning
equally “fit for use” and fit
for shaping learning. It
consists in no more than
the four levels and lines in
the table. We have taken it
from O’Connor and Sey-
mour (1996). But the three
exemplary explanations of it exposed here are completely ours. The
first one is an individual one applied to certain stages in life; the
second one refers to an individual in a company and the context of
training needs analysis; the third and most extended one applies to a
fictitious wind energy cluster.
4 levels of learning 4 translations
1. unconscious
incompetence
I don’t know,
what I don’t know
2. conscious
incompetence
I know,
what I don’t know
3. conscious
competence
I know,
what I know
4. unconscious
competence
I don’t know,
what I know
Level 3 corresponds to what in other learning terminologies is called
explicit knowledge; level 4 corresponds to implicit or tacit knowl-
edge (e.g. Nonaka/Takeuchi 1997; Polanyi 1985). In this wording,
Four levels of learning
(more details in
Chapter 2.2 on the
Didactics of Action
Learning
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one facet of facilitation is the task or role of leading people from
level 4 of implicit knowledge and competence to level 3 of explicit
competence or even level 2 of no competence (in a specific skill or
aspect) but the consciousness and readiness of achieving conscious,
explicit competence and eventually of leading them to his own, the
facilitator’s level of making co-operation easy.
Example 1: Individual life stagesExample 1: Individual
Driving a car may be a good example of how it works, analytically as
well as for the shaping of learning processes:
1. Being a baby or an indigenous inhabitant of the Amazon jungle, I
don’t know cars and, logically I don’t know that I don’t know
how to drive a car.
2. Once I know that there are cars that I could use, but I have not
learned to drive, I know that I don’t know how to drive a car.
3. Now I have had my driver’s lessons and passed luckily the exam, I
know how to drive a car, but I must concentrate on doing all the
different things very carefully.
4. After years of driving I do a lot of things at the same time; e.g.
perceiving and understanding the traffic situation on the junc-
tion ahead, the changing streetlight, setting the blinker, steer-
ing, braking, clutching, changing gear, listening to the radio,
talking with my mate, maybe smoking etc., without being con-
scious of how complex the situation and my activities are.
Practically every situation or context in life can be constructed and
reconstructed in these four stages as a process of new learning, un-
learning and re-learning. Let’s stick to the example of car driving:
driving a car in Great Britain for the first time might reduce all my
routine as a driver from the European continent from level 4 to level
3; an elderly person might even fall back on level 2.
Example 2: Individual in company contextExample 2: Individual
in organisation The second example presents a more analytical way of using the four
basic components of the theory resulting in the four levels.
competence incompetence
conscious
Level 2: Conscious competence
• You perform the skill reliably at will.
• You need to concentrate and think in
order to perform the skill.
• You can perform the skill without
assistance.
• You are able to demonstrate the skill
to another, but probably you cannot
teach it well to another person.
• Only repeated practise will make you
move from stage 3 to 4.
Level 3: Conscious incompetence
• You become aware of the existence
and relevance of the skill.
• Now you are also aware of your defi-
ciency in this area.
• You have an idea of how much and in
what aspects you have to improve.
• Ideally, you commit yourself to learn
and practice the new skill and to move
to the 'conscious competence' stage.
unconscious
Level 4: Unconscious competence
• You do not consider the skill anymore
as a skill (see the car example); the
skill has become largely instinctual.
• You are able to do several things at
the same time as performing the skill.
• You might now be able to teach others
in the skill, although for teaching you
will have difficulty in explaining ex-
actly how you do it without con-
sciously going back to level 3.
Level 1: Unconscious incompetence
• You are not aware of the existence or
relevance of the skill area.
• You are not aware of having a particu-
lar deficiency in the area concerned.
• You need practical evidence that the
new skill will add to your personal ca-
pacity of doing something useful for
yourself or the organisation you are in.
• Only then the new skill can be devel-
oped or learning can begin.

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Example 3: Wind energy cluster
The third example, finally, is much more complex than the individ-
ual approaches. Setting the scene: Our exemplary wind energy clus-
ter produces energy-generating wind mills. It is situated on the
coast, over the years more and more companies have settled their
production here forming a cluster. The cluster companies have been
very successful as the market, originally an ecological niche market,
has been growing rapidly. The early Danish example of off-shore
wind parks has become an interesting development model due to the
strong pressure on other CO2-intensive energy production.
Example 3: Cluster
Level 1: Unconscious incompetence
The cluster is very busy with satisfying a rapidly expanding market.
Boosting production and sales is the top priority. Labour still is rela-
tively cheap as redundancy rates are high. Workers can be recruited
from other parts of the country, waving with attractive wages. Little
is done for training qualified workforce, less for establishing relevant
R&D and training co-operations with the few regional universities of
applied sciences in the neighbouring towns and cities. The cluster is
no more than an agglomeration; no serious co-operation for political
influence towards improved infrastructure is organised. Only few
have a faint idea of what’s coming up. The unions are telling them
that they are running into stormy weather. But most managers have
“no time to deal with the soft factors”. For them, only earning
money is a hard factor.
Level 1
Level 2: Conscious incompetence
The growing difficulties of recruiting qualified labour, particularly
specialised engineers, lead to serious bottlenecks in production. The
soft factors have become really hard ones now. Now many managers
have understood that along with earning money their main task con-
sists in strategic planning and less in operative trouble shooting.
They start to understand that in order to have more time for strate-
gic issues, i.e., among others, talking to politicians and professors
and to their cluster companions, they have to reorganise their com-
panies internally. “They must run without the boss”, they say now.
They know now what they should have been doing earlier. They are
becoming aware of the fact that being a cluster can be more than
just being many of the same. A cluster association is formed. A
tough young engineer from the unions seems to be a promising clus-
ter manager.
Level 2
Level 3: Conscious competence
They know now what has to be done. And they do it, most of them.
The cluster has gained conscience of being a cluster. A few serious
consultants help them to establish sound organisation development
projects. Diversity management will help to create a multi-national
workforce. It means giving more power to lower ranks. “These peo-
ple know more than we thought they would. Real management tal-
ents some of them”, they are heard saying in the pub some of them
are frequenting regularly to meet other managers. The cluster asso-
ciation is becoming an effective marketing booster and image ma-
chine with a proudly presented booth at a number of interesting
fairs in Moscow, Dubai and Shanghai. With energy prices soaring to
ever new top rates, the growing US market has become aware of the
Level 3

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cluster. But building up training capacities and trust relationships
with the regional science is slow business. Capacities are notoriously
insufficient. Also politicians have been sound asleep for a long time.
They are willing to move a lot of money for improving infrastructure
and expanding the scientific potential. But it takes time; others have
been more active and earlier. “Each euro can only be spent once”,
they are told. Supported by the cluster association they raise money
from the companies for financing a new attractively doted and
equipped professorship; some of the engineering cracks from the
south are applying for it.
Level 4: Unconscious competence
Things are running smoothly. The cluster managers, a very commit-
ted young lady has recently joined the team, are a hit; they are
moving many of the activities the cluster is running. Also the new
professor is a win; the first promotion of the new wind energy engi-
neering course is being trained; many of the students have passed
their internships in cluster companies; their end of study theses deal
with practical problems in cluster companies and institutions. And
more than 50 percent of the companies are active in vocational
training now. The organisation development projects have become a
normal thing; they have helped to mitigate the effects of still scarce
qualified labour. Most of the managers have had hard travelling
years opening and developing the new markets. The home market
still is a stronghold, but the companies are solidly implanted in the
new markets.
Level 4
But there are also new problems. More and more people do not like
the ever larger windmills pinned everywhere in the landscape. Par-
liament has inflicted serious restrictions. In Africa and the Arabian
world, lots of unlicensed copies of the cluster’s products from China
have turned up at much lower prices. First managers are thinking
about moving to other countries. In some of these issues, they are
on level 2. Those who are thinking of moving away may well be
completely unaware (level 1) of the host of implications this decision
would imply.
Learning loops
Learning in loops
Facilitators help to make easier the communication of people who
do not know what they know. Their task is making the unknown
knowledge available for conscious common analysis, planning and
action creating a common treasure of knowledge, projects and ex-
perience. Said in other words, facilitators are supporters of organisa-
tional learning or, what is the same, of individuals learning in com-
mon or within a common reference framework which can be organ-
isational or cross-organisational.
Chris Argyris and Donald Schön (1974) have suggested a process
model of learning in loops. The role of facilitators also could be de-
scribed as helping people to learn in more than one loop. Argyris and
Schön part from the simple idea that everybody acts with more or
less implicit theoretical considerations and hypotheses. Therefore
they distinguish between theory-in-use, a more or less implicit theo-
retical framework of action, and espoused theory as the consciously
developed framing of action. They assume that people normally be-

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come active in order to solve a certain problem turning up as a re-
sult of their own or somebody’s or something’s action. They develop
an action strategy for solving the problem having a certain frame-
work of governing variables in mind which remains implicit: general
aims they want to reach, certain effects they definitively want to
avoid, certain rules that should not be offended, specific methods
they want to employ because it is the normal way to do it. If it is
successful, the problem is settled, if not, the action strategy is im-
proved, and so on. This corrective action would be single-loop learn-
ing (see graphic).
Double-loop learning then would not only consist in correcting the
mistake but asking and reflecting on how it could turn up, if there is
any connection to the framework of governing variables, if some-
thing in this organisational framework should be changed, if the
methods employed need refinement or to be changed completely,
etc.
“When the error detected and corrected permits the organization to
carry on its present policies or achieve its present objectives, then
that error-and-correction process is single-loop learning. Single-loop
learning is like a thermostat that learns when it is too hot or too
cold and turns the heat on or off. The thermostat can perform this
task because it can receive information (the temperature of the
room) and take corrective action. Double-loop learning occurs when
the error is detected and corrected in ways that involve the modifi-
cation of an organization’s underlying norms, policies and objec-
tives” (Smith 2001).
Facilitators are those people who support double-loop learning by
critical reflection of the conditions of learning and action and who
help to develop answers to this questioning the framework of gov-
erning variables. Furthermore, facilitators help to go through these
loops of action and learning together, as a group, as a part of the
organisation, as the organisation, as a network of organisations.